


Let it Bend Before it Breaks

by Would_die_for_fitzsimmons



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Angst, Childhood Friends, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kid Jemma Simmons, Kid Leo Fitz, Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons Friendship, Leo Fitz Feels, Leo Fitz-centric, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27618728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Would_die_for_fitzsimmons/pseuds/Would_die_for_fitzsimmons
Summary: Leo Fitz was sat at the bus stop again. He kicked his heels into the almost frosted over puddles while chewing on his bottom lip anxiously. Pulling his thin jacket around his shivering form, he sighed; watching as his warm breath crystallised into minuscule impossibilities.
Relationships: Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz & Leo Fitz's Father, Leo Fitz & Leo Fitz's Mother
Comments: 10
Kudos: 21





	Let it Bend Before it Breaks

Leo Fitz was sat at the bus stop again. He kicked his heels into the almost frosted over puddles while chewing on his bottom lip anxiously. Pulling his thin jacket around his shivering form, he sighed; watching as his warm breath crystallised into minuscule impossibilities.  
He'd had another fight with his mum that evening. She was never home anymore and he had sat up late into the night worrying about her until she finally walked in the door at 2am.  
“I made dinner.” He had said blankly, walking out of the front door that hadn’t quite shut yet.   
And now here he was, sat at the bus stop  
<>  
Last time it had been about school.  
“You can’t skip another year Leo! The school...” she had faltered, “they don’t want you to!”  
“Well let me leave then Mum! It’s not my fault I’m in a class full of idiots!”  
“Leopold James Fitz! They are not idiots and you know full well that if I had it my way then you wouldn’t even be at that school.”   
The two had quarrelled back and forth for hours before Leo had stormed out of the door, pretending not to notice the icy sting the tears streaming had from the winter air.  
<>  
“You okay Fitz?”   
Leo looked up to see that Jemma Simmons had sat beside him. The two of them barely knew each other but had sat in somewhat uncomfortable silence during lunch everyday for the past 18 months – for obvious reasons, no 18-year-old in their right mind would want to spend their lunch hour with two 11 year olds.  
He didn’t reply.  
And so they sat in silence  
~~~  
The next time Leo came to the bus stop was when his father came to visit.  
“He doesn’t want to be at that school Alistair!” his mum had confessed to his father whilst Leo was meant to be sleeping  
“I know you’re listening boy,” Alistair had ignored the desperate remark from the woman “show that smug face of yours.”   
Leo crept down the stairs holding his stuffed monkey, worrying his bottom lip.  
“You don’t want to be at the school anymore son?” he sneered, towering over his son.  
The young boy shook his head and inhaled. Alcohol.  
“So you mean to tell me, that I’ve been paying my hard earned money, for you not to appreciate it?”  
Leo didn’t answer.  
“I tell you to go to that fucking school, and you go to that school! You hear me boy?” he spat “and get rid of that bloody monkey. You look like a twat.”  
<>  
Dark blues and greys faded into the soft pinks and yellows of a Scottish sunrise. He checked the time- 5:37 am. Leo stood up, stretching his aching bones and cringing at the slight pop of his knees under the pressure that had been absent for a few too many hours. He didn’t know where to go.   
And so he went to Jemma.   
<>  
She had lived on the other side of Neilston for almost 2 years now, so he knew the way. It was 6:23 when he arrived, unsure of what to do but stare up into Jemma's bedroom window. He knelt on the dewy grass and picked up a small stone from the driveway. Leo squinted, closing one eye before throwing the stone at the window. The sharp edge made a tiny tap on the glass, but amounted to not much else. And Jemma didn’t wake up.  
Leo grimaced at the thought of his plan B, but made his way towards the garden wall nonetheless. He looked up and grabbed at the textured surface, beginning to pull himself up.  
He shuffled along the top of the ledge, trying not to look down. By this point, Leo was somewhat regretting his choice to climb in the window of a girl he hardly knew; but quite frankly, he wasn’t sure he could face a descent down the wall – so it was the window or nothing. And then he was outside Jemma's room, trying to pluck up the courage to knock.   
<>  
Jemma woke up to a knock. She opened her bleary eyes, blinking away the sleep and swinging her legs out of bed.   
“That’s odd,” she said allowed to herself. Jemma didn’t need to be up early in the mornings anymore. Her parents had pulled her out of the local secondary school so she could finish her master’s degree at University.   
Nevertheless, she pulled aside her pale pink curtains and gasped at the sight of a shivering Leopold Fitz, precariously balanced on the thin garden wall outside her window.  
With fumbling fingers, she unhooked the rusted latch and pushed up the window, grabbing hold of the boy and pulling him into the room; so they both ended up in a heap of limbs on the floor.  
She stood up and closed the window, stopping the whistling breeze in its path.   
Without a second thought, Jemma pulled the boy into a tight hug, standing on her tiptoes so she could tuck his head underneath her chin. They could have stayed like that for hours, but Leo's legs crumpled beneath him as his tears fell.  
<>  
The pair only realised they had fallen asleep when Leo's phone chimed.   
“It's my Mum.” He said, voice thick with sleep and tears  
“She's probably worried you know?”  
“Yeah. I know”  
He begrudgingly picked up the phone and skimmed through the message. It’s didn’t take long for more tears to start falling.  
Jemma took the small device and read the text, one arm around Leo.  
“Leo this,” she stammered, “this is wonderful!”  
The boy just nodded and sobbed in relief.  
~~~  
Leo, I know that seeing your father has been tough this weekend. And it’s been hard for me too. But I've told him that we won’t be taking money from him anymore. You don’t have to go back to school. Whatever you want to do, I support you. Where are you Leo? I can come and pick you up.  
~~~  
Leopold Fitz was sat at the bus stop again. Only this time he wasn’t coming back to the rural village of Neilston. At least not for a while. He felt a warm hand squeeze his and looked up with a smile at Jemma. There was a hiss of air as the bus pulled in to the little wooden shack that had been a safe place for years, and the not-so-young-anymore duo shared a glance, plus a nervous grin, before stepping into their new lives.  
And so he left the bus stop, not as Leopold or Leo. But as Fitz.

**Author's Note:**

> And that concludes my first ever fic!  
> Thank you so much to T for being my beta and being every so patient and wonderful!


End file.
